Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) adds new functionality for
encrypting Volume License Product Keys in Windows Setup answer files.
To use this feature you must have the following
items:
- Windows XP Professional Volume License Media
- Windows XP Professional Volume License Product
Key
- Windows XP SP1
To encrypt a Volume License Product Key in a script, follow
these steps:
- Copy the I386 Directory and all subdirectories from your
Windows XP Professional Volume License Media CD-ROM to a directory on your hard
disk. For example, copy them to C:\Flat.
- Download and extract Xpsp1.exe to a directory on your hard
disk.
- Run the following command to integrate SP1 into the I386
directory:
c:\xpsp1\update\update.exe -s:c:\flat
- Run the following command to encrypt your Windows Setup
answer file:
c:\flat\winnt32.exe /encrypt:"xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx:y"
/unattend:filename
This
command uses the following place holders:
- xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx is your Volume License Product Key.
- y is a value ranging from 5 to 60. This is the time in days that
you want this script to be valid for.
- filename is the script that you want to encrypt the Volume License Product
Key in.
Notes
- To encrypt the product key in a answer file, you must run
Winnt32.exe from a computer that is running Windows XP or later. You cannot
encrypt the product key on a computer that is running either Windows 2000 or
Windows 98.
- This procedure works for any valid Windows Setup answer
file (for example, Unattend.txt, Winnt.sif, Sysprep.inf, or Ristndrd.sif
).
- You have to install from a Windows XP Professional source
directory into which Windows XP SP1 has been integrated.
- The /encrypt command automatically adds the "Productkey=" line to your file or
updates an existing Productkey or ProductID entry.
- When the time period specified has ended, the user is
prompted to manually enter a product key during Setup.
When you run this command, you do not receive any dialog boxes
or error messages. To determine whether the command is successful, see the
%WINDIR%\Winnt32.log file. The following is a sample command to encrypt a
product key that is not valid for Volume License media:
Main module path: <c:\flat\i386\winnt32u.dll>
PID is not valid or not a valid VL key.
For more information about Volume License Product Keys and
the changes to Product Activation in Windows XP SP1, visit the following
Microsoft Web sites:
Help and Support
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